so

Here's an update finally, but I'm not going to talk about my trip in this one.

No, this post is about the many problems that plague IES Delhi.

Some problems are inherent in study abroad programs, I know. For one thing, this particular program is extremely new; for another, any and all study abroad programs, particularly those in developing countries, are going to subvert expectations to a certain extent. That's partially why I came here - I know that I needed my world-view shaken up a bit. However, this particular program has certain problems that I don't think are unavoidable. We'll start with the one that has become most pertinent.

"Domestic Help" + theft

like most middle-upper-class Indian households, the IES student residence has servants. The staff refers to them as the domestic help, but for a Westerner who has never even had a cleaning lady, that's pretty indistinguishable from servants. All of us were uncomfortable with their presence simply because of different cultural standards - it's very strange watching someone sweep my room when I know that I can do it myself - and honestly Parul, our residence coordinator, didn't help with that much, as she especially treated them as if they owed her the world. Every morning Pawan or his wife Maya would come into our rooms and sweep the floors, which was all well and good until one girl found a few hundred rupees missing from her wallet. She took it for simple absent-mindedness until more girls started realizing that money was being taken out of wallets and bags. This came to a head when one girl had 4000 rupees (about $100, but it buys so much more here) taken out of her wallet while she was in the room sleeping. Vibha, the program director, was pretty reluctant to accuse the staff, so we all got a big lecture on the importance of not stealing and of keeping everything important locked up even if we were in the residence, despite the fact that all of the locks to the drawers of our desks - if they even work - are identical. The thefts stopped for a few weeks and started up again at the beginning of this week, climaxing when one girl's entire wallet went missing. She searched for it furiously and we all helped, again assuming it was merely misplaced; at one point however, her room was empty for about the space of a minute, with the outside ground-level window open. The wallet was then discovered, empty, in the middle of the room, most likely having been thrown in from the window after the hue and cry of the wallet search had started. The only people with access to that particular side of the house is the 'domestic help.' Additionally, students from last semester have reported missing money as well under the same circumstances.

So basically this has made an already awkward situation worse. There's no way of trying to ignore the thefts at this point or pretending that we don't have relatively clear evidence as to who has been doing it, and all of the students have agreed that Maya and Pawan should no longer be employed by IES or present in the residence. Which breaks my heart even as I agree with it - it's pretty obvious that the stealing was in part driven by compulsion, and they have a two-year-old kid. But over 10,000 rupees has gone missing in a program that we are already paying a hefty sum for. Vibha is going to announce her decision tonight - I can't imagine that it will be anything other than Maya and Pawan leaving their position.

What frustrates me most is how this has been handled. Vibha is constantly asking us for help and then putting the responsibility of what happens to them on us despite the fact that the responsibility is hers, as she hired the staff and did not handle the situation adequately when it first arose. Also, this is, you know, HER JOB. Parul is pretty useless when it comes to this, as has been the case almost always - apparently she was the only one who even applied for this position, so we're not exactly getting expert help here. She's incredibly small-minded, tactless, and incompetent, and Vibha, while intelligent, is extremely duplicitous and pretentious.

I've loved being in India, but if I had known what I know about the program now, I would not have chosen IES. The entire program is marked with miscommunication and misinformation - much of it deliberate - and the inability for the leaders to treat us like adults. The majority of the staff I respect and love (then again, it consists of maybe 10 people including professors), but these two positions are incredibly important and are filled by people who are not doing their jobs correctly and moreover often blaming us for their lapses.

Sorry that this isn't a very happy update - you should check out my pictures to get a sense of where I've been going. Spring break was honestly amazing - I think that I want to end up living in Darjeeling, it's so beautiful. (Plus the tea and momos are amazing!) Feel free to ask any questions here about specifics of my trip or my complaints; I know already that I'm going to ask the UPS study abroad office to put me into contact with anyone who is considering this program because people honestly need to be warned about the inefficiencies here.